The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is exclusive to AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile in the US and today we’ll show you how to open up the operating system with root access for the latter phone carrier network. Do not try to use the steps listed below for any of the other carriers since they require different instructions.

If you wanted a new large smartphone with immense display, exceptionally high pixel density screen, high-resolution display, fast 4G mobile data support, NFC, special active stylus, 8-core processor and lots of RAM, the Note 4 is a great option for you. However, due to factory settings and restrictions implied by the device manufacturers, they are not fully opened up to unleash their potential. Therefore, by following a guide such as this, we can unlock and unchain the OS with developer Chainfire’s CF-Root tool.

We love using ChainFire’s work for many of our guides since it delivers an experience that is very close to stock Android. What’s best is subjective, but we prefer sticking to the stock experience so you can see what Android are doing and staying along their lines from the official developers. Additionally, you still get all the greatness of root access such as installing a custom ROM or custom firmware and overclocking the CPU to enhance the hardware performance.

You should locate the USB drivers from the official Samsung website and install them on your computer of choice. You will need to use either a computer, laptop or notebook running Windows OS for the steps to work since we are using the Odin Tool. The Odin application only works with the Microsoft company software out of Redmond we know as Windows. Do not try installing the file on anything earlier than Windows XP. If you are not at least running XP now is the time to update. You will find that Microsoft stopped signing off and supporting XP already anyway and now the latest still receiving updates is Windows Vista.

Moreover, if you do not want to find the drivers manually, you can visit the Samsung Kies and install them that way. Just remember to disable Kies before starting the steps as the software can interfere with out software here. Additionally, we want to stop all security programs and applications from running on the Android smartphone and the computer.

Even today, rooting does not come with guaranteed success. There’s always a chance that things go wrong and you soft-brick the handset. Need I remind you that as soon as we tick over the flash counter we lose device warranty. That means if you brick the smartphone the manufacturers will not take a look at it when you send it off. The pleasant news is that developers are consistently making guides for how to un-brick the same devices. You can find a lot of that information over at the XDA Developers forum.

We always recommend backing up the data presently stored on the internal storage. If you are using the SD card and all data is already backed up then you can skip this step. However, to successfully backup and store on the internal system we need to sync with Samsung Kies or use an app available from the Google Play Store such as Helium for Android. Those already with root can take a NANDroid backup that restores the OS back to the last known spot.

Furthermore, make copies of everything you added after unboxing the Note including the phone contacts, EFS folder, market apps, videos, photos, music and more. We recommend Helium since it is great for syncing the contacts and backing up the apps.

Stop over at the Settings > Developer Options and enable the USB Debugging mode.

5. Fetch the USB cable.
– if you cannot find it try looking at the wire that is connecting the phone charger.

6. Boot the mobile into Download Mode.
– press Volume Down + Power + Home buttons at the same time.

7. Plug the phone into the USB slot on the side of most laptops, notebooks and the slot in the system unit for PC’s.

8. Wait for Odin to say “added’ and the ID: COM port changing blue or yellow.

9. Click the ‘PD’ button and upload the root package to this location.
– wait for the file extension to show up on the outside before continuing on to the next step. That way we know it is finished loading. It will only take a few seconds depending on your processing power.

10 Leave all default settings as they are including Auto reboot and F reset Time options scheduled.